Mandy Moore has a Wild Hope this week — to defeat the mighty White Stripes — but after a sporadic music career, her chances to do so are almost nil. Beyoncé is also back, but don't get too excited — her "B'Day Anthology Video Album" DVD encompasses all the clips fans probably already grabbed on the B'Day - Deluxe Edition set that came out last year and was subsequently yanked due to a lawsuit. But don't worry, there are still loads of new tunes to fill up those long summer nights.

Feeling Icky?: The Stripes slip out their sixth album, Icky Thump, mere weeks before their 10th birthday — and they've busted out bagpipes, a mariachi trumpet, church organ and more wacky instruments for the occasion. Even more colorful is the story behind one of the tracks, "I'm Slowly Turning Into You": Noted collaborator Michel Gondry pitched them a video concept that would depict Jack White slowly morphing into Meg through the guise of 98 additional actors, and the singer/guitarist liked the idea so much that he wrote a song with the visual concept in mind. Don't even get us started on "Prickly Thorn, But Sweetly Worn," a song about the Scottish national flower.

Hope Floats: It's hard to pinpoint Mandy Moore's last tried-and-true release. Candy, issued in 2005, was a contractually obligated disc that culled old material she had previously disowned, and it didn't even chart on the Billboard 200. Before that was 2004's The Best of Mandy Moore, another compilation that reportedly ticked her off, and prior to that was Coverage — a batch of songs originally performed by other artists. That makes Wild Hope her first album of new studio material in six years — and this time around, she's co-written the whole shebang, with some help from Michelle Branch, Chantal Kreviazuk, Rachael Yamagata, and others. Songs include "Latest Mistake," "Can't You Just Adore Her?" and "Slummin' in Paradise."

Off the Hook: Chrisette Michele had a hand in Jay-Z's "Lost Ones" and Nas' "Can't Forget About You," singing on the hooks on both tracks. Now it's her time to shine — and Jay has returned the favor by issuing her debut on Def Jam. The soulful, jazz-influenced singer — who is set to open for Musiq Soulchild when he tours this summer — gets production help from Babyface, John Legend and Will.I.Am on I Am (how apropos!).

Stray Cats: Straylight Run jogged their way to one hell of a debut, getting rid of more than 200,000 copies of their independently released 2004 eponymous CD. The rock band — which features members of Taking Back Sunday — self-produced its second album, The Needles the Space, and the set includes "How Do I Fix My Head," "Soon We'll Be Living in the Future" and "The Miracle That Never Came."

Choppin' Time: Slimmed down to a threesome after the departure of bassist Kevin Rutmanis, Tomahawk actually sound larger than ever on their third album, Anonymous. Every bit as ambiguous and elusive as the title suggests, the album actually consists of Native American songs guitarist Duane Denison researched after collaborating years ago with cowboy from hell Hank Williams III. Appropriately titled songs include "Totem," "War Song" and four tracks named after dancing rituals.

Getting to Know ...: While you're probably familiar with most of the aforementioned artists, you might be overwhelmed by the litany of bands out there you've never even heard of. Here's some quick 411 on some other artists that are also cranking out CDs this week:

· The Aliens: No, Roky Erickson's old backing band isn't back from the dead — it's actually three founding duders from the Beta Band coming back together to create something that's more glam than trip-hop.

· The Confession: An Orange County, California, quintet that is going to be on this year's Warped Tour and counts Avenged Sevenfold's M. Shadows — who produced its Requiem debut — among its friends.

·Memphis: A lo-fi, soundscape-addicted band from Canada consisting of Stars co-founder Torquil Campbell and his pallie Chris Dumont.

·Lightning Dust: A minimalist project featuring two guys from groovy psych-rockers Black Mountain. Their self-titled debut was partially recorded in a cave, yo.

·Will Haven: This Sacramento, California, metal band played for a few years, then broke up in January 2002, then regrouped in October 2005. Their new album The Hierophant was co-produced by Deftones' Chino Moreno and ex-Far guitarist Shaun Lopez.

· The Rondo Brothers: Not to be confused with Linkin Park's recently released Minutes to Midnight, these San Francisco producers' new one is titled Seven Minutes to Midnight and features contributions from Head Automatica/Glassjaw linchpin Daryl Palumbo.

"Is it so wrong / To break from a kiss to turn up a pop song?" "What's wrong? Scared to commit? Get on the dance floor, it's a direct hit!" Ah, yes, England's Art Brut are back, and frontman Eddie Argos has more amusing chatter to spill. The indie-rock five-piece — which has opened on tour for Ghostface, strangely — recorded its second effort with producer Dan Swift (Franz Ferdinand, Snow Patrol) at London's Terminal Studios. Songs — and no, you haven't heard these before, familiar as the titles might look — include: "Pump Up the Volume," "I Will Survive" and "Soundtrack of the Summer."

·Burning Brides' Hang Love

The Philadelphia rawkers bust out their third release this week, and the track list ranges from a song about a forlorn lover ("She Comes to Me") to one about a serial killer on the loose ("Waring Street"). The band — which includes a married couple — used to be on V2 but has now partnered with indie imprint Modart for the release. That probably means less exposure for the group, but the move gives the Brides more control over their material — and the right to own the Hang Love master tapes, best of all.

· The Number Twelve Looks Like You's Mongrel

The spazz-metal band — whose name is taken from a 1964 episode of "The Twilight Zone" — titled its third album as such because the songs are so indefinable. As singer Jesse Korman [article id="1557642"]told MTV News,[/article] "We wanted this album to be just complete chaos, with no direction at all." The band elaborates on the disc on its Web site, saying in a post: "A product of harried miscegenation, a foaming mix breed halved and re-halved by the pitifully obvious and the suddenly homicidal, Mongrel is a collusion of conflicting desires and uncontrollable urges, a heart-eating hellion seesawing wildly between the need for stasis and an unflinching commitment to violence." Sold?